white dandelion puff

white dandelion puff,

shriveled yellow blossom still

clinging to the seeds

To this day I love to pick a dandelion puff and blow on it to watch the seeds drift away on their little white parachutes. As children we believed that the number of times it took to blow all of the seeds off told you how many years it would be before you got married! This particular dandelion caught my attention because the dead flower was still stuck to the side of the seed head, like a comical clown's hat. All parts of this amazing plant are both beautiful and useful. The round fringed blossoms with their radiating petals look like hundreds of yellow suns as they pop up all over the green lawns. Herbalists find many medicinal uses for the blooms, leaves and the roots. My mother always had us chew the leaves as a spring tonic. These deeply serrated leaves give the dandelion its name, derived from French, dent de lion, tooth of the lion. Even the hollow stem is useful, at least to rabbits. I once watched one eat nipping the stem off at the base, hold the tube in its mouth like a straw and nibble it from one end to the other. When the yellow flower dies, it is replaced by the amazing globe of seeds, each with its tiny white star ready to launch on the wind.